


Building Bridges

by TheMomeRath



Category: Free!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Related, Dating, Double Dating, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 03:32:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1842784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMomeRath/pseuds/TheMomeRath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto and Haru are on a date. Thing is, Nagisa doesn't quite trust them to be able to actually have a DATE- he thinks they'll just sit and talk like they normally do- so he decides that he and Rei need to keep an eye on their progress throughout the night. Of course, they have to keep it a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Building Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> There are some references to events that occur in High Speed, the work upon which Free! is based. If you haven't read that, it won't really cause problems for you in reading this, but it would certainly enrich the experience.

Rei and Nagisa don’t really think Makoto and Haru can actually complete a date properly, so they decide to follow them just to make sure everything goes according to their plan.

 

Nagisa paced the locker room, towel wrapped around his head and a look of stern concentration on his face. As the blonde walked back and forth, Rei slipped his pants on over his slim legs and tried to follow the smaller boy’s train of thought.“Nagisa, those two aren’t going to do anything crazy. You don’t have to worry about them.” Picking up a towel (royal blue to match his swimsuit and hair) from on the bench next to him, he towelled off his hair just a bit, still following Nagisa with his eyes. "Quit pacing. You're making me nervous."

"I can't stop worrying about them! You know Haru-chan can't do anything on his own aside from swim, and Mako-chan tries his hardest to keep him from doing anything crazy but he obviously isn't quite cut out for it." Nagisa shook his head adamantly, still-damp blonde curls bouncing with each shake. "They can't be trusted together to get anything done!"

Rei dropped his towel to his shoulders. "Ah, wait, didn't you say that you _didn't_  want them to do anything crazy?"

"No!" Turning quickly, the blonde pointed his finger directly into Rei's face, eliciting a surprised squeak. "I said they wouldn't! This is a _date_ , Rei-chan. We WANT them to do something interesting, if not exciting."

Leaning back on the bench to avoid Nagisa's swinging hand, Rei blinked. "Did- did they say it was a date?"

"Of _course_  they didn't! Mako-chan would never call it a date without Haru-chan's permission, and Haru-chan is too oblivious to think about it." He crossed his arms and smiled triumphantly. "But you know it's what's happening, don't you?"

Rei adjusted his glasses on his nose. "Are you sure they want is getting involved? I think that if they were on a date, they'd want to spend some time alone. It's far more private and I think they would appreciate actually being alo-"

"That's exactly why we won't tell them we're following them!" Nagisa interrupted excitedly. "Do you remember when you followed Rin-chan at the fair to keep us from running into him?"

Blue eyes flickered with excitement. "Yes. I enjoyed that. It was very thrilling."

"That's exactly what we should do."

The blue eyed teen blinked confusedly. "Who don't we want them to see?"

 _Groan._  " _Rei-chan!_  for someone so smart, you sure do act dumb a lot."

"I resent that statement."

Nagisa ignored him. "We just need to follow them without them seeing _us._  That way we can keep an eye on them to make sure they're actually having a good time."

Rei picked up his jacket to put it on. "I guess I can handle that," he said as he slipped his arms into the sleeves- but before he could get the jacket all the way on, a blonde-haired cannonball slammed into his chest, knocking him off balance.

"Rei-chan, you're the best!" Nagisa's arms slipped under Rei's jacket, trapping his arms so they were stuck at awkward angles in the air.

"N-Nagisa-kun! You're going to knock me over- ahh _hhh!_ " Nagisa giggled as he tipped Rei over onto the next bench with his excited tackle.

~~~

"Can you actually see them?" Rei adjusted his glasses and squinted into the light of the restaurant from their hiding place behind a bush. "This is ridiculous."

Nagisa pursed his lips and shook his head. "Rei-chan, if you could see them easily, they could see us easily as well." He peeked over the bush and glanced at one of the tables inside. "I see them. Haru-chan is facing our window."

"Is this the best place to hide if he's looking right at us?" Rei huffed, raising his head so he could look inside. "We should go across the street. Then we can eat too." His stomach rumbled and he quickly put a hand to his belly.

Nagisa laughed happily. "You sound like a tiger when you're hungry." Looking over the hedge again, he nodded. "I think we can go across the street. There should be a clear view of them from the other restaurant."

"Thank you," Rei sighed, shuffling across the ground to avoid being seen by the couple inside the restaurant.

~~~

It had been a half an hour of very uneventful spying, but entertaining conversation and bantering between the two amateur sleuths made up for the lack of activity across the street.

A half-eaten pizza in front of them, Rei and Nagisa chatted over their table, Nagisa with mouthfuls of pizza nearly spilling out and Rei with a hand covering his mouth as he laughed at the blonde boy's antics.

"...and I used to run in place until Rin-chan, Haru-chan, and Mako-chan arrived so we could run together," Nagisa explained enthusiastically, waving his arms. "They probably didn't believe I would actually do it, but I did!"

"Nagisa-kun, be careful, or you're going to knock over the drinks again.” Rei’s scolding words was made a little less serious by his suppressed laughter. "I can actually imagine you running in place the whole time,” he added with a gentle smile, steadying the glasses on the table.

Giggling joyfully, Nagisa nodded and took another bite of pizza. "It took a while for me to actually be able to keep up with all of them. Eventually, Haru-chan started to slow down for me." He leaned across the table to whisper, "He probably thinks I didn't notice, but I did."

“I think he notices just a bit more than you give him credit for.” Rei continued laughing for a couple of seconds and he glanced across the street toward where Haru and Makoto had been sitting, then his eyes widened dramatically in tandem with a dramatic double take. "Nagisa-kun. I think they're paying."

The blonde tilted his head. "Who?"

"Haruka-senpai! And Makoto-senpai! They're standing up from their table!" He stood up quickly and pointed. "We have to go!"

Nagisa's eyes widened, and he stood opposite Rei. "Where are they going?"

"I don't know! We have to follow them, don't we?"

"You're right!" Excitedly, Nagisa waved at the nearest server. "Can we take the rest of this pizza to-go?"

~~~

Carrying the half-empty pizza box carefully, the pair followed behind their friends, about twenty-five meters of alternating shadows and streetlamps separating them. After rushing to get out of the restaurant, Nagisa and Rei had scrambled to figure out which direction Haru and Makoto were headed, and it was a stroke of luck that Nagisa spotted their friends briefly illuminated by a passing motorbike quite a ways down the road. After a while, they stopped moving forward, and Rei quickly hid behind a trash receptacle, dragging Nagisa with him

“Why are they headed so far out of town?” Nagisa grumbled, peeking out from behind the green bin. “There’s nothing to hide behind out there.”

Rei watched as Haru gestured up at the sky quickly, then dropped his arm to his side and stepped slightly closer to Makoto. “I think they’re stargazing.”

“Really?” Nagisa perked up again and looked back at the others. “That’s kind of romantic… But still! We need to follow them, and that’s going to be difficult when we don’t have things like this to hide behind!”

Rei frowned and adjusted his red glasses. “Is there somewhere you think they would go specifically? Maybe a place with special meaning for them? We could go there a different way and find a hiding place before they get there.”

“Hmm…” Nagisa furrowed his brow and pressed a fist to his jaw in thought. “Perhaps… They would go to… No that’s not it.” He continued talking to himself, rejecting ideas, and Rei alternated between watching him and the pair in the distance. “Perhaps…”

“You’re going to have to let me know quickly, Nagisa-kun… They’re moving already!”

“Ah!” Snapping his fingers, the blonde raised a finger in the air triumphantly. “They’re headed to the stony bridge!”

Rei raised an eyebrow in surprise as he helped Nagisa to his feet. “Are you sure? I thought there were bad memories associated with that...”

“Maybe so! But we still should try. At any rate, they’ll probably end up coming close to it. Or maybe not…”

“We’d better catch up to them before they get too far off,” Rei replied, picking up the pizza box they had left on top of the trash receptacle.

~~~

Up ahead, Haru walked alongside his close friend, watching both the road ahead and the sky above.

“It’s so enormous,” Makoto said as he watched stars appear one by one as it grew darker, building constellations in the sky. “When I was younger, my father told me I couldn’t ever count all the stars, but I remember trying just to prove him wrong.” He dipped his head and laughed quietly to himself. “Of course he was right, but that didn’t stop me from laying in the grass and staring for hours.”

“I didn’t ever try to count them,” Haru murmured in response. “But I did look at them sometimes.”

Makoto glanced down at his dark-haired companion. “It’s kind of like the ocean, isn’t it? Huge, and mysterious, and unpredictable… I can imagine you’d be interested.” He closed his eyes in silent laughter, and they walked on for some time.

Haru was the one who noticed the bridge in the distance. “I remember crossing this with you every day.”

“Yeah.” Makoto’s voice softened. “I do too.”

Noticing the change in Makoto’s voice, Haru looked over at him. “Does it still scare you?”

“No,” he responded quickly, swallowing. “I just don’t think I can ever forget seeing you in the water.” Makoto’s gaze flicked to Haru, who almost looked concerned, and he smiled. “But you’re okay, and so am I.”

Haru blinked and looked forward at the stony river crossing, then down to his feet.

Makoto felt Haru’s hand bump into his. “Oh, sorry-” he immediately apologized, but he was surprised when the contact never stopped. He looked down between them and opened his mouth when he saw his friend’s hand sliding into his. “Haru…”

Haru looked down at their hands, then back up to Makoto. “I’m sorry, I can stop.” He started to move his hand away, but Makoto grabbed it before he could.

“I don’t mind.”

They stopped moving forward, Makoto’s fingers lacing with Haru’s more pale ones. The feeling of their palms together brought a smile to both of their faces, and Makoto blushed, glad he couldn’t be seen so well in the starlight.

Holding hands, they began walking forward again, slightly warmer in the crisp night air.

~~~

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa whispered frantically, grabbing the blue-haired boy by the shoulders and shaking him. “Are they holding hands?”

“I can’t- I can’t tell when you shake me like that!” He mumbled, shaking Nagisa off and pushing his glasses up his nose. “They very well could be, but they’re too far away to see clearly.”

“Then we have to get closer,” Nagisa announced firmly. “Come on.” He grabbed Rei’s hand and pulled him forward, pulling the other off balance.

“Hey- Nagisa- _ahh!_ ” He collapsed with an _o_ _of_  on top of the smaller blonde boy, who responded by immediately starting to laugh. “It’s not so funny,” He mumbled. “You could have gotten hurt…”

“I’m fine!” Nagisa giggled back. “As long as you’re okay, that is,” he added more seriously.

Rei nodded and leaned back onto his knees, dusting off his legs and grabbing the pizza box from ground a few feet away. “Good thing this stayed closed.” He looked forward at the pair in the distance. “Do you think we should follow them anymore? I mean, if they’re holding hands, then their date is going well…”

Humming as he thought over the idea, Nagisa then shook his head. “We don’t have to follow. But we need to find them at the end so we can as them how it went.”

“Where are we supposed to meet them?”

“We could wait at Haru-chan’s house. They might go there afterward, since his house is before-”

Rei interrupted him. “Are you sure that’s okay? It sounds a bit creepy to me.”

The blonde tilted his head. “We could wait on the beach… Then they’ll think we were spending time together.”

“We _are_  spending time together,” Rei responded slowly.

A grin spread across Nagisa’s face. “We are, aren’t we? It’s just like a date!” He quickly sidled up to Rei and leaned his head on his shoulder. “Isn’t this fun, then? It’s like a double date.”

“Almost. Except two people don’t know they’re actually participating.” He smiled at the enthusiasm Nagisa was showing. “It’s thrilling, in a way.” He looked down at the mop of blonde hair connected to the face grinning up at him.

Nagisa’s grin changed to a look of mock severity. “Rei-chan, if we’re on a date, that means we should probably take this seriously, doesn’t it?”

“Seriously? What-” he stood in shock as Nagisa grabbed the pizza box from him and ran, smiling back at him.

“First one to the beach gets to take the pizza home!”

He started to shout his complaint, then shook his head and smiled. “A race it is.” He adjusted his glasses and zipped his jacket up to his neck, then began to chase the joyfully laughing blonde boy.

~~~

After they crossed the bridge, Makoto and Haru turned onto a path off to the right of the road, hearing a commotion behind them and deciding it would be best to seek some more privacy- at least until the rowdy group of teenagers behind them passed by. They heard pairs of shoes slapping against the road accompanied by happy laughter, but more important to them was the sound of a gentle ocean breeze rustling the leaves of the trees around them that obscured their conversation.

Out toward the edge of the ocean they walked, still holding hands and smiling while occasionally pointing out some sight or another. At some point, they stopped walking and stood staring out over the water, and Haru found himself drawn to the chilly-looking water, but something inside him felt Makoto’s palm against his and he refrained from doing any wading.

As Haru’s eyes traced the shoreline, then the horizon, the wind blew across his face, moving his hair from his eyes, and he took in every piece of the view he could.

Meanwhile, Makoto’s loving gaze rested on a different view entirely, and while Haru appreciated the nature surrounding him, his friend’s focus remained on the boy whose hand he held.

~~~

They finally left the forest path and continued forward on the road until they reached the wide beach that indicated Haru;s house was approaching. The bright, full moon illuminated the beach and road more than well enough to see, and as they passed by a bench, Makoto noticed two figures he recognized.

“Haru.” He nudged the boy on his left. “Is that Rei and Nagisa?”

Haru’s eyes flicked to the pair Makoto had gestured to with an incline of his head. Rei was flat on his back on the bench with his jacket bunched under his head like a fillow, mouth open and eyes shut and an arm across the back of the boy who was with him. Nagisa lay with his head on Rei’s chest, hand resting on the other boy’s shoulder as he smiled into the fabric of Rei’s shirt.

Haru turned back to Makoto and saw the smile in his green eyes before it crossed his friend’s mouth. “Perhaps we should wake them so they don’t sleep out here all night.”

“Right.” Haru looked back over at the other pair and watched as his friend gently tried to wake the other two. Nagisa rubbed his eyes and yawned, then shook the drooling Rei from his sleep, pointing at the pair who had just arrived. Makoto’s laugh was just loud enough for the group of them to hear over Rei apologising profusely for falling asleep on the bench- it was Nagisa’s fault, he swore- and over Nagisa’s adamant refusal that he had fallen asleep first.

“Haru and I are going to head back to his house. We just thought we should wake you so you didn’t spend the whole night here.” Makoto smiled and tipped his head to the side lightly. “I hate to wake you, though; you looked so peaceful.”

Rei stuttered aimlessly while Nagisa smiled in reply. “Yes, we’ve been having a good time. Since you and Haru were on a date, we thought we might take the time to-”

“They never said it was a date!” Rei whispered quickly. “Eheh, no mean to pry, but- did you enjoy your night?” He glanced over at Haru, who was still watching the three at the bench. “I hope you had a great time.”

As he was trying to make conversation, Nagisa groaned. “Rei-chan! You fell asleep on the pizza box!”

Makoto’s laughter came out even louder than before as Rei’s eyes widened and he scrambled to see if any traces of the smushed pizza remained on his back. As Haru watched, the corners of his mouth lifted in a gentle smile. “If you want, you can come too.”

Nagisa turned his attention from the flailing Rei to Haru, and he waved his arms and laughed nervously. “No, no, we wouldn’t want to intrude on your da- on your night out.”

After informing Rei that the back of his shirt was clean, Makoto looked over to Nagisa. “Why not? We were going to be done soon anyway. Right, Haru?”

Haru affirmed this with a dip of his head. “Yes.”

“I promise, you’re not intruding on anything,” Makoto assured, chuckling again.

~~~

Rei and Nagisa sighed dramatically as soon as Haru’s door closed behind them on their way out. The last half-hour had been enjoyable enough, but they greatly feared their plan for the night being found out.

“I think… I would call that successful,” Rei remarked while they walked back along the beachfront together.

“They definitely seem closer, don’t they?” Nagisa smiled off into the distance, then looked back up to his blue-haired friend. “I think it was a success.”

“I’m glad the date is over, though.” Rei took a step forward as he spoke, but Nagisa fell out of step with him. Confused, he turned around. “What is it?”

Nagisa smiled at him. “The date’s not over yet.”

“What do you mean? Haru and Makoto are already at home.” Nagisa took a step toward him. “Or are you talking about something else?”

“Our date!” The blonde boy’s smile widened into a grin and he grabbed both of Rei’s hands. “Our date isn’t over until I kiss you.”

Rei didn’t even have time to agree before Nagisa pulled him down to his level and pulled their faces so their lips touched.

And by the way he kissed back, Nagisa could tell he didn’t mind.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And you made it to the end of the sappy little love story. Bless you for reading. Hope you enjoyed- I love writing these characters.


End file.
